Railway-tie and rail-fastener.



' E. W. GATES.

RAILWAY TIE AND RAIL FASTENBR.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 18, 1913.

Patented. 0ct.7,1913.

Fay j (imam/box Edward W'ates COLUMBIA PLANOURAPH co., WASHINGTON: D. c.

EDWARD W. GATES, 0F RQANOKE, VIRGINIA.

RAILWAY-TIE AND RAIL-FASTENER.

nor-seas.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented @ct. 7, 11913.

Application filed March 18, 1913. Serial No. 755,177.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that T, EDWARD W. GATES,

a citizen of the United States, residing at Roanoke, in the county of Roanoke and State of Virginia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railway-Ties and Rail-l asteners, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an improvement in railways and especially to the provision of a practical substitute for wooden .ties including a more practical means than heretofore devised for fastening a railway rail to ties of metal or of concrete and metal.

To this end the invention consists in the structure and formation of parts and in the combination thereof substantially as herein after described and claimed.

For a more explicit disclosure of the invention a drawing accompanies this specification and in it- Figure 1 represents, in plan, one end of the improved railway tie showing a portion of a railway rail secured thereto by the improved fastener; Fig. 2 is a side elevation of said structures; Fig. 3 is a transverse, vertical section on line 33, Fig. 2; and Fig. 4: is a perspective view of the assembled parts.

But one end of the tie is shown since the other end is identical therewith.

The invention will be described in connection with an all-metal tie, though it is obviously adapted to embodiment with a tie consisting of a metal shell filled with concrete.

The improved tie is indicated in the drawing by 5. It mav be reduced throughout the middle portion as represented. The end of the tie at the rail location is provided with a transverse recess undercut at its sides as shown at 6. This recess is obstructed at one edge of the tie by the ledge 7 and, through the overhanging sides of the recess, holes are formed to receive securing devices, such as the screw bolts 8, which serve to obstruct the recess at the other edge of the tie.

The improved rail fastener consists of a pair of plates, One preferably identical with the other when used with new rails. These plates, numbered 9 and 10, are fitted to .the recess so that they may be slid into it from the side of the tie with their ends in the opposite undercut portions 6. On these plates are upwardly extending clips 11 and 12, respectively. Each clip is located nearer one end than the other of its plate and its opening faces the longer end. The fasteners thus constructed are slid into the recesses with the openings .of the .clips facing inward. This provides for the rail, indicated at 13 resting upon the longer ends of the fasteners, which ends, as shown, exceed in length the united widths of the rail base and the base of the adjacent clip.

The ties and fasteners may be made in any suitable manner, but are preferably cast. The securing devices 8 are preferably screw bolts and, since they do not pass through parts having motion relative to one an other, they do not work out of place. Nor do they have any strain upon them, since the ties are laidwith the ledges 7 in advance relative to the direction of trafficon the track.

This invention also provides for readily adjusting the rails toward one another when the inner edges of the treads have been worn away by wheel flanges. Such adjustment is made by substituting new sets of fasteners of different proportions from those used with new rails. In these substitute fasteners, one of each pair, as 9, has its clip 11 nearer the end of the short portion of the plate, as indicated by the broken line 14 in Fig. 4; while the clip, like 12, on the other plate of the pair is nearer the end of the longer portion, as indicated by the broken line 15. These new plates are readily substituted by removing the bolts 8, knocking out the old plates and driving in the new, when the bolts may be again put in place.

It is known that before the present invention railway ties and rail fasteners had been devised wherein wedges were driven into recesses in the ties at the sides of the rails and secured in place by various retaining devices and that plates with retaining clips have been extended under the rails and spiked to the ties on either side of the rails, but never heretofore has there been devised a tie and rail fastener like those here claimed, wherein the fastener consists of two plates each extending under the rail base and protruding from both sides of said base into recesses in the tie thereby to effectively resist the turning strain to which the present high rails are subjected.

The invent-ion claimed is 1. The combination with a railway tie provided at each end with a transverse railreceiving recess each of which is undercut at its sides, of a rail fastener at each recess consisting of a pair of plates each of which plates extends across the recess in position to support the rail and is firmly secured at its ends in said undercuts at opposite sides of the rail and each plate being provided with an upwardly extending clip and the said clips of each pair of plates facing one another to firmly engage the opposite base flanges of a rail, and means substantially as described for holding each pair of plates in place in its respective recess.

2. The combination with a railway tie provided with a transverse undercut recess at each rail location each recess having a ledge extending across it at one edge of the tie, of a rail fastener for each recess consisting of two plates fitted to slide laterally into said recess and extending across the recess with the ends thereof in the opposite undercut portions and each having an upwardly extending clip adapted to receive the flange of a railway rail, the clips of each pair of plates being arranged at opposite sides of the recess and the plates adapted to support the rail between the clips, and a vertically removable screw bolt traversing each recess at the side of the plates opposite said ledge for holding said plates in place.

3. A railway tie provided at its ends with transversely extending undercut recesses obstructed at one edge of the tie by a ledge extending across the recess and provided at the other edge with vertical holes in the portions overhanging the sides of the recesses through which holes securing devices may be passed to obstruct the recess at that edge of the tie, each said recess being adapted to receive the base of a railway rail and a pair of clip-bearing plates, for holding the rail in place.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

EDWARD W. GATES.

VVit-nesses:

ALFRED ANDERSON, J. B. KELLY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents.

Washington, D. G. 

